Time to get real

SO THERE are still no easy games in international football. Well, only Germany away. After the surreal ecstasy of Munich it was back to gritty reality in Newcastle.

We should have known it would prove harder to break through the defence of Albania's football team than it is for that country's asylum seekers to smuggle themselves into England.

Five-goal wins in the World Cup do not come along like No.10 buses, in clusters.

Not unless you are in a pre-qualifying group with Andorra, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

Against fully paid-up members of the global game it is their very rarity which makes them occasions for the nation to cherish. In that historic context, it was preferable that a cricket score did not follow the Bavarian goal-fest.

It was just as well for the nation's sanity, also, that England had to scuffle and strain for the three points which bring instant qualification for next summer's Finals within touching distance.

Euphoria had been elevating the levels of public expectation to impossible heights.

Had the mania continued to rise unchecked, the inevitable fall would have made for a very nasty mess indeed. Better, by far, that the return to earth should be as soft as a sparrow's landing, not with a bang.

A win is still a win in anybody's songbook but this one came as a timely reminder that no team - certainly not one at England's youthful stage of development should be expected simply to waltz away with the World Cup.

The big kick-off in Japan and South Korea is nine months away and that time-honoured gestation period may not be long enough for Sven Goran Eriksson's team to ready itself for taking on the entire world over the grind of a tournament, rather than just the old enemy on one magical night.

This is not to say it cannot be done, only that it is never wise to make assumptions about chickens and eggs, especially not this early in the incubation process.

Not that England's intensive Swedish coach is guilty of that, any more than he resents those Englishmen like John Barnwell, Gordon Taylor, Sir Bobby Charlton and myself who were disappointed that the FA felt it necessary to look abroad for a replacement for Kevin Keegan.

Unlike those among our readers who are busy reminding me of that opinion, Eriksson understands its emotional basis and welcomes all our congratulations on the job he has done so far, not least in making all Englishmen so happy last Saturday night.

Also, like all football managers, he knows how easy it is for others to be wise after the event. Only in this case the event is far from over.

While his opening statement has surpassed the most fanciful expectations, Eriksson himself knows there is still much to do before the jury comes in with a verdict of unconditional approval.

The Calm Man of Football is thankful that he came at the pregnant moment when English football was hatching its healthiest batch of international youngsters for many a long winter.

What has made that coincidence so especially beneficial to our national game is that his cool hand has given the ideal, moderating manner of guidance to footballers at the hot-headed beginning of their World Cup careers.

Tranquillity is a most useful quality to have at the helm during a stormy passage and not the least of Eriksson's achievements is that he has kept his players stabilised at the crest of even the highest wave.

More stable, it has to be said, than those commentators who have gone completely overboard.

Success has enabled the prodigious likes of Michael Owen, David Beckham and Paul Scholes to add multi-cap experience to their youthful promise - an equation rich in potential - but there are others with futures still to prove.

Since few pubescent millionaire celebrities are renowned for the modesty essential to self-analysis, it is good to hear left back Ashley Cole admitting that his defending has a long way to go to catch up with his adventurous attacking.

That may come with a little professional help and maturity but a more defining test for Eriksson will be how he sorts out England's defence overall.

Sol Campbell and Rio Ferdinand may be pillars of the Premiership but as a central unit for England they look no more compatible than the pound and the euro.

It would have been churlish to mention it earlier - everyone deserved time to savour the Munich moment and nobody wanted to rock the boat before Albania - but England might have been two or three down before Owen confronted the Germans with

their own mythology. Not only that, but the left side is no nearer being balanced than it was under Keegan or Glenn Hoddle.

Nor can we know, as yet, how flexible and dynamic Dr Method and Mr Calm will be when he comes to the big World Cup night when he is in real trouble and his team need to be realigned and re-stimulated.

Neither is it certain that Beckham, for one, will not combust again if the going gets tough in Japan or South Korea.

That does not mean that they cannot give us a thrilling run for our money next summer, but what we must guard against is falling victim to mass hysteria as well as to some team like France or Argentina.

Liverpool's Gerard Houllier, who knows how volatile his own young princes still can be, speak with the semidetached wisdom of the foreign manager when he predicts it will be at least two years before this brave new England are ready to win a major championship.

That makes Euro 2004 a realistic target. A World Cup triumph before that would be not only the ultimate bonus but as brilliantly unbelievable as that giant electronic scoreboard which lit up the moonscape of Munich's Olympic Stadium a few heady nights ago.